Forums | MacLife

MacBoy4139 wrote:

I got a ton of Christmas cards for the people that used to live here.  All of the sudden.

My mom's gift to me didn't come until today - 11 days it took to send something priority mail.

Like it or not - priority is treated just like first class.
No preferencial handling at all.

Why use it then?
Mostly for the receiving end.

Express mail is different, but priority is not.

resedit wrote:

Like it or not - priority is treated just like first class.
No preferencial handling at all.

Why use it then?
Mostly for the receiving end.

Another reason is that the the cutoff for 1st class is 13 ounces.  Anything more and your choices are parcel post/media mail (cheap, but slow... and even slower if you're shipping to/from Hawaii) and Priority Mail.

justine wrote:

Costco sells them for less.

They do?  Cool!  Never noticed them in the store; where do you find them?

I've had nothing but great service at the USPS since they fired the guy that kept stealing stuff from the mail.

Well, maybe not .50. Maybe .40...
Seems like every time over the past few years, when they riased the price, they would set it some odd number. Why not round it off to the nearst .05, and maybe they won't have to raise it again for a good while.

My mother sent a letter about one of our sisters who'd just died of cancer to HER sister (my aunt) - in 1959. In 1961, my Aunt Dort called (from faraway Florida), she was afraid our mother had lost her mind since Aunt Dort had just recieved the 2 year-old message about our long-deceased sister's funeral.

In 1973, I went to make a first visit to the woman who would become my wife 2 years later. But I arrived to an empty house and left after waiting a couple hours.  I was really bummed because I thought I'd been dumped in the coldest way.  It was inexplicable because she'd written me and had seemed really anxious to make this connection.  She called the next Monday - to tell me she'd sent a letter warning me she'd been delayed getting home and suggesting a later date.  We lived only 40 miles apart at the time.  BUT THEN I remembered the TV news story about a truck carrying mail catching fire on the freeway - two days BEFORE my aborted visit. 

Then about 5 years ago, I mailed a letter from Ann Arbor to my other sister in Clarkston (50 miles away). I mailed from the downtown post office at around 1 PM.  My sister called me THAT night, saying she'd picked up my letter from her box AT 4 PM THAT SAME DAY.  3 hour delivery - and that letter had to go through the big distribution center in Detroit. That's the same center the truck which had burned in '73 was bound for.  See- it's all up to Fate and Acts of God, "postal service" has nothing to do with it. 

Lets all just be grateful we're not getting any more anthrax letters.  ;-)

Last edited by macinjack (2006-01-08 2:16 am)

TheConfuzed1 wrote:

mtpalms wrote:

DukeofNuke wrote:

Well, maybe not .50. Maybe .40...
Seems like every time over the past few years, when they riased the price, they would set it some odd number. Why not round it off to the nearst .05, and maybe they won't have to raise it again for a good while.

I believe it used to have something to do with stamp dispensers not being able to give or accept penny change, so if you wanted a 21¢ stamp, it cost you 25¢, I'm sure there is a modern correlation. It may only be a penny or so difference to you, but to them those pennies add up.

That doesn't make any sense at all...

Charge 25¢ for a 21¢ stamp because the 4¢ extra adds up?  It would add up to more if they would just make it a 25¢ stamp as Duke suggested.

Consider the source

Back when postage was 21¢ and earlier, most people had a choice of standing in line for a stamp, or paying an extra 4¢ from a vending machine. Now we can get stamps at the grocery check out for cost, and at some office supply and independent shipping stores for a little extra. I go to a corner shop (ups, usps, fed-ex, dhl) for almost all of my shipping, except if I want stamps I have to pay cash (he has to charge extra for CCards and he got tired of explaining why to his customers) and I have to go to the post office to send stuff regisered mail.
What irks me are the Luddites (and they are legion) that will stand in line for an hour (and grumble) to ship a package when they can go to a local independent, support the local economy, and not wait in line. My boss says it's a form of socialization for some poeple. If that's the case, they have my deepest sympathies.

Even if they cash in on the difference like that , why not $.46? That would be raking in the dough either way.

I went to the USPS website to order 2¢ stamps, and they aren't available. Now, i have to find some time this week to go get some, since i need about 50.

justine wrote:

For those of you that didn't know (like me), stamps are going up to 39� on the 8th. I have about half a roll of 100 left. Now i have to buy a bunch of little stamps.

This wouldn't bother me so much if we actually got really good service, but we don't. The idiot mailmen (yes pl) have delivered one house off before. Mixed up mail. Lost mail. Tossed packages up on the porch. The postmaster does nothing.

I'd like to know where the smurf these increases are going to.

Try compairing our post office with other country's postal systems. I have seen the Korean post office in action...SCARY.

Phydeaux wrote:

Sometimes I wonder if the USPS should've privatized. But alas.

9/11!!!!1one!!!!

Yeah, because privatization is always the answer. That's why you never see rants here about Fed-Ex, etc. The privatization people irritate me, like private companies run soooo much better and efficiently. This is a myth that too many people buy into.

justine wrote:

Malkin wrote:

justine wrote:

I'd like to know where the smurf these increases are going to.

This rate increase - the first since 2002 - is needed to fulfill the requirement of a federal law passed in 2003. That law requires the Postal Service to establish a $3.1 billion escrow account, with use of the funds to be determined by Congress at a later date. Without this federal mandate, it would not have been necessary to raise rates in 2006.

That just irritates the crap outta me.

Prepare to be irritated even more. 
The post office needs to raise rates soon just to meet their own operating expenses.  Expect another increase very shortly after this one!